2 
EDITORIAL. 
This is really a proud distinction and a great privilege ; it has taken us many a long day 
and cost us many a hard struggle to obtain it, but there it is. Now, let us hear what is 
the state of things in America. ‘ A man may graduate at a college which has a suffi¬ 
ciently long course, and the first State he goes to he finds he has to pass another examina¬ 
tion ; he stops there for a few months, and realizing that he is not doing so well as might 
be expected, he goes to another State, and there he is called upon for another examina¬ 
tion ; so, no matter where he travels, if he crosses a State-line he must pass another ex¬ 
amination and take out another license to practise ! How would our young practitioners 
like it if they were compelled to pass a second examination and pay for another diploma 
when passing, say, from Berwickshire to Northumberland, or from Cheshire to Flint ? 
The report continues, very wisely : ‘We should try to get a uniform standard, so that 
after a man gets out of college, he may be permitted to practice in any State.’ 
“There is no doubt that this is the only solution of the difficulty, and I [Principal 
Williams, editor], as a veteran in the profession, would urge upon my brethren in Am¬ 
erica to buckle on their armor and gather their forces together, drill these forces carefully 
and energetically—severely, if necessary—and then, presenting an unbroken front, let 
them go forward to the State and central government and compel a recognition of their 
claims. But let them remember the words of Shakespear : ‘ Thrice is he armed that has 
his quarrel just.’ The first thing to be done is to insist upon a uniform entrance examin¬ 
ation for all the colleges that are to participate in the advantages, and not only uniform,, 
but of a fairly high standard, controlled at the beginning, if thought desirable, by some 
educational body, such as one or other of the universities. Recalcitrant colleges will have 
to be lashed into efficiency and obedience, or else abandoned to inevitable poverty and ul¬ 
timate extinction. Then the course of study in the various colleges will have to be codi¬ 
fied and made of uniform standard. If there is to be an American Veterinary College,, 
empowered to grant degrees of national validity, there must be unity in the schools, sO' 
that a man who has taken his degree may be trusted to have attained to a certain state of 
efficiency, and may pass current like a coin of standard weight and purity. There must 
be no debased coinage ; there ought to be only one degree. If there are two, the ten¬ 
dency will be to the lower degree, to the so-called conservation of energy, and the status, 
of the veterinary surgeon in America will never rise to its proper and natural level. An 
effort might be made to co-operate with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in this- 
country, so as to obtain reciprocity of advantages, but this project may be reserved for fu¬ 
ture discussion. I merely throw out the hint at present. I hope the day will come when 
veterinary surgeons all the world over will form one harmonious and compact body. But 
that day is still far off. My hearty desire is to see a beginning made in the right direction 
by my brethren across the Atlantic. ’ ’ 
For his words of sympathetic interest in behalf of American 
veterinary education, which we must admit is to-day in some¬ 
what of a chaotic state, while the rapid evolution of State laws 
governing and regulating the practice of the profession is rap¬ 
idly complicating matters, we feel grateful to the distinguished 
editor of the Veterinary Journal and Principal of the Edinburgh 
Veterinary College. The Review believes that the conception 
